René Descartes presents a bunch of bananas to one highly intrigued French Ambassador in Leiden, The Netherlands, around 1630

From the first pseudo-scientific sketches of the New World in the sixteenth century until very recently, the banana functioned as a kind of index of the primitive realm as opposed to western civilization.

Standing for the raw, backward parts of the world, the banana caused both laughter and uneasiness in the rational body. Conversely, it composed a tropical landscape that enabled the bananeros of the world to device strategies of cultural specificity and autonomy.

The Banana Archive collects artefacts that perform this history of symbolic and actual power.

See video documentation of lecture-performance in VideoBrasil Festival 2011 (in portuguese but you can get a sense of the set up)

See photo documentation in universes-in-universe website